Ryan Day at Ohio State’s National Championship Celebration (courtesy OSU Athletics)
Matt Patricia and Tyler Bowen new DC and OL/run game coordinator; five on staff promoted
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced on Thursday the addition of two new members to his coaching staff and the promotion of five other assistants on staff. Joining Ohio State’s staff are:
Matt Patricia, who won three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, including two as the team’s defensive coordinator, as defensive coordinator; and
Tyler Bowen, who will be the new offensive line coach and run game coordinator. He comes to the Buckeyes after most recently serving as Virginia Tech’s offensive coordinator and quarterback’s coach.
Those on the staff who have received promotions and additional roles/responsibilities are:
Brian Hartline, who has been named offensive coordinator and will continue to coach the team’s receiver’s unit;
Program assistant/quality control coach Billy Fessler, who worked closely coaching and working with Will Howard this past season, has earned the promotion to quarterback’s coach;
Tight end’s coach Keenan Bailey, who now has been named co-offensive coordinator and will continue to coach the tight ends;
Safeties coach Matt Guerrieri has been promoted to pass game coordinator. He will continue to coach safeties and
Secondary and cornerbacks coach Tim Walton has been promoted to co-defensive coordinator and will continue to coach the overall secondary and cornerbacks.
Matt Patricia: Super Bowl winner has 19 years in the NFL
Patricia comes to Ohio State with years of experience coordinating defenses in the National Football League as a member of the Patriots’ coaching staff. He spent a total of 16 seasons in New England, beginning in 2004 and continuing through 2017 before he was hired as the head coach of the Detroit Lions in 2018. During this time he also was an offensive assistant coach, linebackers coach and safeties coach.
“I have been aware of and followed Matt’s successful NFL career for the past 15 years, or when he first started calling plays for those outstanding New England teams,” Day said in announcing the hire. “I have also gotten to know him and, aside from his creative and outstanding abilities as a defensive coach, I think Matt is going to integrate into our program’s culture and values, which are the essence of who we are, very well.
“I’d like to welcome him and his wife, Raina, and their children to Columbus and Ohio State University.”
Patricia was named defensive coordinator at New England in 2012, a position he held for six seasons, through the 2017 season, and included two Super Bowl victories. He was the Patriots defensive play caller beginning in 2010 and his tenure with New England included three Super Bowl victories (Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 and Super Bowl LI in 2017).
During his six-year tenure as New England’s defensive coordinator, the Patriots appeared in the AFC Championship Game each season and had an overall record of 75-21. Including the three seasons prior (2009-11) when he was the defensive play caller, Patricia’s defenses ranked in the top 10 in the NFL in fewest points allowed per game eight times, leading the NFL in scoring defense in 2016 on its way to winning the Super Bowl. The Patriots also won the Super Bowl following the 2014 season after ranking eighth in the league in points allowed per game.
Following his tenure (2018-20) as the Detroit Lions’ head coach, Patricia returned to New England in 2021 and stayed through the 2022 season in a variety of roles, including offensive line coach. In 2023, he was a defensive assistant in Philadelphia.
Patricia is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI, located in Troy, N.Y.) and its School of Engineering’s Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering Department. He was a four-year football letterman for the Engineers as an offensive lineman from 1992-95. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at RPI in 1996 and then spent three seasons at Syracuse University as a GA for three seasons before joining the Patriots in 2004.
Patricia and his wife, Raina, have three children: sons Dante and Dominic, and a daughter, Giamina.
Brian Hartline: Offensive Coordinator and Wide Receiver’s Coach
In his eight seasons on staff, including one year as a quality control coach, Hartline has successfully recruited and mentored some of the best wide receivers in the nation. That group includes four first-round NFL Draft picks in the last three years – Chris Olave (2022), Garrett Wilson (2022), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (2023) and Marvin Harrison Jr. (2024). Six of his players have earned All-America honors, including Harrison, who in 2023 became just the third wide receiver in Big Ten history to be a two-time unanimous first team All-American, and 2024 freshman phenom, Jeremiah Smith, who broke all of Cris Carter’s freshmen receiving records.
Harrison Jr. was the 2023 Biletnikoff Award winner as the nation’s outstanding wide receiver.
“Brian did some of his best coaching this past season,” Day said. “His loyalty and patience are going to pay off, and I think he’s going to be the best coordinator in the country.”
Hartline has twice been named the nation’s top wide receivers coach in the last four years. @on3sports named him its 2022 national wide receivers coach of the year and FootballScoop named Hartline its 2021 wide receivers coach of the year.
And in 2019, he was honored by the American Football Coaches Association as one of its AFCA 35 Under 35 honorees, a prestigious program that develops “premier, future leaders” in the coaching profession.
Hartline has been a rising star among college coaches since becoming a full-time staff member in 2018 after one season as an offensive analyst. He was a standout receiver for Ohio State from 2005-08, graduated in 2009 and spent seven seasons in the National Football League, six of them with the Miami Dolphins and one as a Cleveland Brown. He played in 104 NFL games with 73 starts and produced 344 career receptions for 4,766 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Hartline played for the Scarlet and Gray from 2005 through 2008 and was a part of four Big Ten championship teams, giving him eight Big Ten championships as a player and as a coach, including a record four consecutive outright Big Ten championships in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Hartline, from North Canton, Ohio, graduated from Ohio State in spring 2009 with his degree in communications. He and his wife, Kara, have three young children: sons Brayden and Kameron, and a daughter, Brooklyn.
Tyler Bowen: Offensive Line Coach/Run Game Coordinator Bowen comes to Ohio State with seven years of experience at Power 4 schools plus a stint in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
From 2017 through 2024 – through stops at Maryland, Penn State and Virginia Tech – Bowen has coached the offensive line, tight ends and quarterbacks. He’s been a coordinator at both Penn State and Virginia Tech with success at both schools. While in State College, Bowen recruited tight end Tyler Warren, who won the Mackey Award in 2024, and offensive tackle Olumuyiwa Fashanu, the 11th overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft.
“I am really pleased to announce the addition of Tyler Bowen, and his family, to our coaching staff,” said Day. “He’s a terrific coach who will bring experience to the staff along with an excellent record as a recruiter.”
Bowen’s Virgina Tech offense averaged nearly 180 yards rushing per game in 2024. In 2023, quarterback Kyron Drones passed for 2,085 yards and 17 touchdowns while also rushing for 818 yards and five scores.
Over three seasons on the Penn State staff, from 2018 through 2020, Bowen served as the Nittany Lions’ tight ends coach and was promoted to co-offensive coordinator for the 2020 season. He was the interim offensive coordinator for Penn State’s 2019 Goodyear Cotton Bowl when the Nittany Lions defeated Memphis, 53-39, and had 396 rushing yards.
Prior to his tenure at Penn State, Bowen served as the offensive line coach at his alma mater, the University of Maryland, during the 2017 season. The Helena, Georgia native spent two years at Fordham, serving as offensive coordinator/offensive line coach in 2016 after joining the Rams as offensive line coach in 2015. Under his direction in 2016, the Rams’ offense led the Patriot League and finished fourth in the FCS in both scoring offense (40.1 points per game) and total offense (498.2 yards per game).
Bowen began his coaching career at Maryland in 2010 before moving on to Towson (2013) as a tight ends coach and Penn State (2014) as a graduate assistant.
He and his wife, Ginny, have two children, a daughter and a son. Bowen earned his bachelor’s degree in communication and master’s degree in minority and urban education from the University of Maryland.
Keenan Bailey: Co-Offensive Coordinator and Tight End’s Coach
Keenan Bailey is entering his 10th season on the Ohio State coaching staff and brings experience working with Ohio State tight ends, wide receivers, quarterbacks, offensive line and running backs into his new role as co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach.
Bailey, who was named to 247Sports’ 30 Under 30 college coaching list in 2021, has steadily risen through the coaching ranks during his time in Columbus. He first joined the staff in 2016 and for the next four seasons he worked as an offensive assistant with the running backs and wide receivers units.
Billy Fessler: Quarterback’s Coach
Fessler spent the 2024 season on staff with the Buckeyes as an analyst and worked exclusively with the quarterbacks, helping Will Howard to one of the best seasons in program history. Howard, who consistently referenced Fessler as a key to his success in 2024, set the Ohio State single-season and career records for completion percentage (73.0) this year and finished third nationally in efficiency (175.3). His 4,010 yards and 35 touchdowns rank third and fifth, respectively, in single-season school history. Howard also set a school record by completing 80 percent or better of his passes in eight games last season.
The 2024 season marked Fessler’s second stint on Ohio State’s staff. He spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons on staff and working with Heisman Trophy finalist quarterbacks Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud. From there, Fessler was the quarterbacks coach at Akron in 2022 and was promoted after one season to be the Zips’ offensive coordinator early in 2023. He had a brief stint as quarterbacks coach at UCLA before coming back to Ohio State last summer.
Fessler started his coaching career at Slippery Rock, where he would serve as a graduate assistant and running backs coach in 2018. From there, he was hired as a graduate assistant at Mississippi State under Joe Morehead, who would later tab him as his quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator at Akron.
From Erie, Pa. and a graduate of Erie Cathedral Prep, Fessler was a quarterback at Penn State from 2014-17. He graduated in 2018 with his degree in finance and he has two master’s degrees: one in business administration from Mississippi State University and the other in sports coaching from Ohio State.
Fessler and his wife, Kelsey, have a young son, Freddy.
Tim Walton: Co-Defensive Coordinator; Secondary and Cornerbacks Coach Entering his fourth season on Ohio State’s staff, Waltonhas already proven and excellent ability to both identify and develop talent. His secondary in 2024 included All-American safety Caleb Downs along with first-team all-Big Ten safety Lathan Ransom and cornerbacks Davison Igbinosun and Denzel Burke, who also earned all-Big Ten recognition. In two of Walton’s three seasons on staff, the Buckeyes have finished in the top five nationally in pass defense.
Matt Guerrieri: Pass Game Coordinator and Safeties Coach Guerrieri was hired as the program’s safeties coach in February of 2024 and was instrumental in helping to mold a defense that finished third nationally against the pass last season (167.0 yards allowed per game) while leading the nation in total defense and scoring defense. At last month’s national championship celebration, Day called Guerrieri “one of the brightest minds in college football, and a star in the making.” Guerrieri’s unit this season included unanimous All-American safety Caleb Downs, the Big Ten’s defensive back of the year, and all-Big Ten performer Lathan Ransom.
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